The time has come for countries in Asia and the Pacific to translate their growing economic clout into positive political influence to help set the global AIDS agenda and the response to the epidemic, the head of the United Nations agency dealing with the disease has stated.Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) told the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific that the world looks to the region and sees what tremendous progress is possible.
"The region has been achieving breathtaking economic growth and social development, especially in the last decade," he noted in a statement delivered by J. V. R. Prasada Rao, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team, to the week-long meeting, which began yesterday in Bali, Indonesia.
He added that the region's economic dynamism is also reflected in the leadership of the AIDS response in many countries, including on addressing the needs of the most marginalized and at-risk populations – men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.
However, he pointed out that "spectacular economic growth has not been matched by progress in creating the enabling environments and supportive social norms necessary to deliver a future generation free of HIV."
According to a report last year on the global AIDS epidemic, an estimated 5 million people in Asia, and 74,000 in the Pacific, were living with HIV in 2007. In addition, the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia says that AIDS remains the most likely cause of death and loss of work days among people aged 15 to 44 in the region.
Mr. Sidibé said he continues to receive reports of "senseless, vicious and inhumane" harassment of people living with HIV in the region, as well as harassment of AIDS activists.
"UNAIDS will continue to advocate, both publicly and privately, to repeal laws that undermine our quest for universal access and root out HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
"But real transformation has to come in the hearts and minds of the people," he added. "Courts and parliaments can only create an enabling environment. Societies and communities have to change the social norms to end stigma and discrimination faced by transgender, men who have sex with men, sex workers and injecting drug users."
The Executive Director also stressed the need to reap the "prevention dividend," noting that it is possible today to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission just as has been done in Western Europe. "An AIDS-free generation is within our reach – it is a moral imperative."
There is also a strong business case for prevention, he told the gathering, as it generates economic benefits. As pointed out by the AIDS Commission, for every dollar spent on preventing HIV, eight dollars can be saved on treatment costs in the future.
"Prevention has been systematically under-invested," said Mr. Sidibé. "The time has come to boldly ramp up our prevention efforts and ensure investments are better focused on reaching marginalized groups in poor communities."
The Congress, which takes place every two years, has drawn thousands of people together for five days of discussion on issues ranging from mobility and migration, injecting drug use, human rights as well as gender.
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